Crackdown on Trafficking in Wildlife
12/1/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Environment-Brazil: Crackdown on Trafficking in Wildlife
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 1, 1999
RIO DE JANEIRO, (Dec. 1) IPS - The arrest of several people caught
trying to smuggle spiders, butterflies and snakes out of Brazil
highlighted the growing dimensions of the traffic in biological
entities in this country.
Now, Minister of the Environment Jose Sarney has launched a joint
operation involving postal and airport administration officials and
the Federal Police, which controls the borders, to crack down on this
type of trafficking.
The smuggling of live animals from Brazil is big business, estimated
to be worth about $1 billion annually, according to Dener Giovaninni,
who heads a non-governmental organization that fights the illegal bio-
traffickers.
The Internet has contributed to facilitating and expanding the
international market in wild animals and genetic material in general,
as has the efficiency and speed of postal services, he said.
Giovaninni said that to halt such smuggling, the state should
incorporate the tactics used to combat narco-traffickers, such as
deploying dogs trained to sniff out live creatures.
Concerns over bio-trafficking have heightened since the Brazilian
Institute of the Environment (IBAMA) seized 90 "cangrejeras" spiders -
- a large, hairy variety -- at the start of this month in the airport
serving Recife, a big city in the country's northeast.
Keila Marinho was carrying the spiders to Switzerland, in small boxes
in her handbag. After her arrest, she revealed the name of the Swiss
citizen who was paying her $80 a spider to transport them from
Santarem, in the Amazon region.
So-called "bio-piracy" provides an opportunity for huge profits
because some rare species fetch up to $10,000 in wealthy countries,
according to a report by IBAMA that was published in the newspaper O
Estado de Sao Paolo.
Trappers of animals and insects in the Santarem region are usually
paid a couple of dollars by the smugglers for these species, which are
so valuable abroad.
In addition, there is no great risk involved under present
legislation. Keila Marinho was detained for just three hours, as were
six Germans and five Dutch citizens who were surprised in the act of
preparing ornamental fish and plants for smuggling. All were sent home
after paying a small fine.
But that is just one aspect of the illegal trade, which has drawn
increased attention from the police. Brazil also allows a large
quantity of its biodiversity to legally exit the country under the
guise of scientific accords, said William Guimaraes Gama, an analyst
at the National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA).
Research projects act as a cover for illicit shipments of genetic
material that are uncontrolled and in unjustifiably large amounts. And
foreigners cannot be accused of stealing because it is Brazil that
offers these "biological freebies," Gama said.
Gama's charges are contained in a master's thesis, in which he
analyzed the Project of the Dynamic Biology of Forest Fragments in
Brazil's Amazon region, a 20-year effort that was most recently
financed by the Agency for International Development of the United
States.
The project, in a deal with INPA, authorized hundreds of overseas
shipments of seeds, insects, animals and botanical material without
registration of their destination or use.
Brazil's rich biological diversity "is thus being given away, without
any compensation or benefits for the country," lamented Gama, citing
in particular various agreements to inventory the flora and fauna of
the Amazon as excellent covers for smuggling.
The scant development of national scientific research is also
responsible for the situation, he added.
Brazil needs to value its biodiversity more, and learn how to better
negotiate these types of deals, because "there is no such thing as
disinterested help" in that area of international relations, Gamma
concluded.